Rotorua Girls' High School Year 13 student Rangipurei Manley has demonstrated her public speaking abilities taking out the Rotorua/Taupo title at the Race Unity Speech Awards in Rotorua.
The Race Unity Speech Awards is a speech competition for high school students that runs alongside Race Relations Day.
The Human Rights Commission sets the speech topic each year usually to coincide with the theme for Race Relations Day.
The Year 13 student won the Rotorua and Taupo competition last week with her speech on racism. She will now compete at the national semifinals in Auckland on May 12.
The 17-year-old said she was thrilled to win the competition but it had come as a surprise.
It wasn't until she turned up on the night that she realised her speech was just over a minute too long. She had to take out nearly a page of content and have a last-minute practice in a side room before taking the stage.
Rangipurei said she enjoyed public speaking but that was not her motivation to enter the competition.
"The fact that I enjoy public speaking is not why I do public speaking. It's more the content of what I'm talking about and the passion I have for race relations in New Zealand."
Rangipurei wants to study law or political science at university next year. In the meantime she plans to practise for the national competition. And she has her own style of practising.
"I just sit in a room and say it [the speech] to an audience of table and chairs."
- Supplied by Rotorua Girls' High School